Cleveland Indians vs. Texas Rangers Preview
Where: Globe Life Park at Arlington, Arlington, TX
When: Monday, April 3, 2017, 7:05 PM ET
Line: Cleveland Indians (+105) at Texas Rangers (-115); total: 8.0 – view all MLB lines
TV Broadcast: ESPN
Writer’s Pick: Rangers (-115)
Betting on the Cleveland Indians
Unfortunately for the Cleveland Indians, they now have the longest championship drought in baseball after blowing a 3-1 lead to the Chicago Cubs at last year’s World Series.
All things considered, though, it was still a stellar 2016 campaign for the 94-win Indians, who won their first division title since 2008. Outstanding pitching paved the team’s way to success, and now they’ve enlisted the services of Edwin Encarnacion to bolster their batting order. Encarnacion had a career-high 127 RBIs last season with the Blue Jays along with 42 homers, further giving the team depth in the hitting department to complement the likes of slugger Carlos Santana (not of “Smooth” fame, mind you) and playoff breakout sensation Francisco Lindor.
But in the end, Cleveland’s 2017 season will be all about duels on the mound, and it all begins with the return of ace Corey Kluber (18-9, 3.14 ERA in 2016). Kluber finished third in the AL Cy Young race last year and posted a sweet 1.83 ERA in six starts last postseason. He’s now aiming for a fourth-consecutive season of 200 or more strikeouts, yet we expect him to come out shaky this Monday.
Kluber will make his third-straight start on Opening Day, but the Indians lost the past couple of openers with him on the mound. And it’s not just Kluber who’s had it rough on day one, as Cleveland has lost six of its last eight Opening-Day games in general. One of those losses was a 9-1 blowout in 2009 at the hands of the Rangers, who also happen to be their first opponent this 2017 season.
Betting on the Texas Rangers
Despite an American League-best 95 wins, the Texas Rangers once again fell to the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS last season. Nevertheless, they’ve won back-to-back AL West titles and appear to be in relatively good shape heading into the new campaign.
It’ll be interesting to see if last season’s prized trade acquisition, catcher Jonathan Lucroy, was indeed worth the move as he begins his first full season with the Rangers. Then there’s a familiar face making a return to the ball club in Mike Napoli, who actually gave a huge boost to Cleveland last year before deciding to come back to Texas for the third time in his career.
On the starting pitching side of things, the Rangers will have a ninth different starter in as many years on Opening Day, with Yu Darvish (7-5, 3.41 ERA last season) also making his full-season debut for the team after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2015. The Japanese standout finished the previous season with no less than eight strikeouts in each of his last four starts.
While Monday will mark Darvish’s first Opening Day start in the majors, he’s no stranger at kicking things off for his former team in Japan, having started in five season openers for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. He should also relish the fact that the Rangers won five of the seven regular-season meetings last year against the Indians, who only have a total of four left-handed hitters in their roster to counter the hard-throwing righty.
Writer’s Prediction
The Rangers (-115) take the first of a three-game series against the Indians, 4-3.
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